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Rețele Electrice Muntenia completed the modernization works for the North Station, the largest distribution transformation station in the country, with an investment that reached approximately 70 million lei, from its own funds, according to a company press release, delivered on Monday AGERPRES .

“The modernization project was particularly complex, since the integral consolidation of the building and the replacement of all electrical equipment was carried out in stages, with many temporary ones, all this in order to succeed in the modernization without interrupting the electricity supply to the customers”, the press release states.

The station is located in the central area of ​​Bucharest and serves over 73,000 customers, including central and critical institutions, hospitals and various ministries. The major benefits brought by the modernization of the North Station consist in increasing the safety of supplying existing customers, increasing the flexibility of the high and medium voltage network, as well as the possibility of accommodating increased demands and needs of consumption and the number of customers.

“We continue the process of modernizing and developing the networks to ensure their resilience, flexibility and the level of digitization necessary to successfully face the accelerated electrification and decarbonization of energy consumption, for the benefit of the community. The modernization of the North Station was a large-scale project, for which vision and adapted and dedicated engineering and construction solutions were needed. A major challenge was the fact that the works were carried out without the operation of the station being interrupted, which meant the consolidation of the building and the replacement of the electrical equipment at the same time as ensuring the power supply for the approximately 73,000 customers. The concern for safety was at an extremely high level, as our colleagues and the contractors’ staff worked at height and in the vicinity of live installations”, said Mihai Peste, general manager of Rețele Electrice, part of the PPC group, formerly known as E – Distribution Muntenia.

The North Station is equipped with six power transformers of 40 MVA (Mega Volt Ampere) each, resulting in an installed power of 240 MVA and a guaranteed power of 160 MVA. The peak load recorded so far was around 127 MVA. This load level is above the value of the load for the entire Giurgiu county.

“The station is powered by four 110 kV underground power lines, which have modern cables with dry insulation, and distributes electricity through 66 medium voltage lines, 34 lines at 10kV and 32 lines at 20kV. In the station, there are installed 64 MV cells (transformer cells, couplings, measurement, internal services and lines) that operate at the voltage of 10kV, 76 MV cells (transformer cells, couplings, measurement, internal services and lines) that operate at the voltage of 20kV and 11 cells of 110kV (transformer cells, couplers and lines)”, states the cited source.

In the control room of the fully digital transformation station, 38 protection, measurement, telecommunications and internal services cabinets are installed, and the total length of the medium voltage cables used in the station modernization project is 26.8 km, respectively 61.5 km for low voltage ones.

The modernization works consisted in the replacement of all six transformers with modern ones, produced in Romania, with reduced losses and increased reliability, as well as the replacement of all 110kV, 20kV and 10kV equipment and installations and secondary circuits.

“All newly installed equipment is encapsulated (the 110kV ones) or in compact construction (the MV ones). The electrical scheme of the station was improved by implementing a double busbar solution with longitudinal and transversal couplers, thus obtaining increased flexibility in the 110kV network in Bucharest”, the press release states.

According to the release, the new transformers with natural cooling have a very low noise level, to protect the comfort of nearby residents. In addition, modern switching equipment has replaced oil technologies, eliminating the risk of explosion and pollution. The new equipment eliminated the need to use about 6,000 liters of mineral oil.

“As part of this important investment, the station building, dating from 1969, was fully consolidated. As part of the process, in a first phase, masonry and reinforced concrete elements were demolished that totaled over 11,000 tons of materials resulting from the demolitions, then, in stages, the transformer station building was consolidated to eliminate the seismic risk; about 6,000 cubic meters of concrete, over 700 tons of concrete steel, about 75 tons of metal constructions were used. The space was thermally insulated in order to increase energy efficiency, and for the same purpose, a lighting system based on LED technology was installed”, the statement added.

The works were carried out with the help of internal teams and contractors, which included, on average, 50 people per month.

The interior area of ​​the station, approximately 4,600 square meters, is distributed over four floors. Following the installation of the new equipment, much more compact compared to the previous technology, 60% of the available space was released, part of which will be used for the construction of a technological testing and development center for the Electric Networks companies. The rest of the space will be able to be used for expanding the electrical energy distribution installations, if necessary.

Electric Networks operates networks with a total length of over 133,000 kilometers in three important areas of the country: South Muntenia (including Bucharest), Banat and Dobrogea, covering a third of the local distribution market, and is developing an investment program to improve the quality of services , the safety and performance of networks and the local implementation of the environmental standards of the PPC group. The electric networks operated by the three companies Retéle Electrice count 287 transformer stations and over 24,000 transformer stations.